One Piece: Lord of the Weather Chapter 97 97: Vertus

After Jinny disappeared into the darkness of the palace, Pablo remained alone on the balcony for so ti. He was thinking. He was arranging his final plans. Then he heard footsteps behind him.

He turned. Darin was standing at the balcony door, carrying a large leather bag.

"My lord," said Darin in a low voice. "I brought what you requested."

Pablo gestured for him to enter. Darin stepped forward and placed the bag on the ground next to Pablo. Then he opened it to show its contents.

The bag was full of items:

Regular compasses, several of them, so small and so larger. They were precisely made, their thin needles pointing steadily north. These compasses were sufficient for navigation in the South Blue.

Eternal compasses (Log Poses) tightly sealed in small glass boxes. Inside them were glass spheres with moving needles at their centers. Darin had managed to obtain them from rchants who traveled to the Grand Line. So were fixed on specific islands, and so still needed to be set.

A large map carefully folded, drawn on thick leather. It was a map of the South Blue and the southern part of the Grand Line. Darin bought it from an old cartographer in Sorbit. It was expensive but worth every belly.

Clothes light and water-resistant. Dark shirts, durable trousers, woolen socks, and a thick jacket. All neatly folded.

Light als: dried at, dry but edible bread for days, nuts, and bottles of water. Enough for more than two weeks.

Darin closed the bag and tightened the leather straps.

"My lord, are you sure you don't want to prepare a ship for you?"

Pablo looked at him. He knew Darin was speaking with love. He wanted to help him in any way.

"No."

"But the journey will be long. The sea is not safe. A ship would provide you with shelter and a foothold—"

"Darin." Pablo interrupted him, but his voice was not harsh. "I will not need a ship."

Darin looked at him with eyes that did not understand. He wanted to ask "how?" but he didn't. He knew Pablo never said anything without reason.

"Very well, my lord," he said finally. "If you need anything, just call."

"I will. Now, go."

Darin nodded. He bowed slightly. Then he turned his back and walked towards the balcony door. He paused for a mont, looked at Pablo one last ti, then disappeared into the darkness of the corridor.

Pablo remained alone again.

He looked at the bag at his feet. It contained everything he would need for the coming days.

Then he looked at the sky. The stars were nurous, and the moon was a thin crescent.

He placed his hand on the stone edge of the balcony. Then he jumped.

He did not jump inside. He jumped outward. Into the void.

The tower was high. The air was cold. The room below him. The garden below him. The ground below him.

He began to fall.

Just a few ters before he would hit the ground, the air around him moved.

The clouds that were far in the sky gathered suddenly. Not slowly. Quickly. As if they had heard his call.

A thick, huge cloud ford, its dinsions approximately three by three ters. It was dark in color, deep gray almost reaching black. It was not an ordinary cloud. It was very dense, saturated with water, compressed by Pablo's ability until it beca like a hard sponge.

Pablo landed on it gracefully. The cloud swayed slightly under his weight. But it held. It withstood.

He stood on the cloud as if standing on solid ground. It was cold under his feet, and slightly wet. But it was stable.

"Beautiful," he said to himself.

Then he raised his hand. He signaled.

The cloud set off with him.

It wasn't very fast. But it moved steadily. It rose with him away from the palace. Away from Sorbit. Away from the region he had built and loved.

He did not look back. He looked only ahead.

---

High in the sky, among the clouds and stars, Pablo sat on his cloud. He took out the bag and opened it. He took out the compasses first. He examined them one by one. They worked.

Then he took out the map.

He spread it before him. It was large, drawn with high precision. It showed the entire South Blue, and the southern part of the Grand Line. On the map were approximate borders of the region dominated by sea kings in the Calm Belt.

He looked at the map. His journey was clear now.

He would travel through the South Blue first, moving away from his islands and region towards the southeast. He would cross several islands, so known to fishern and traders, and so large kingdoms. He would not stop at every island.

Then after that, he would reach the Calm Belt.

He thought about the Calm Belt as he knew it from his previous world. A belt of sea with no wind, no currents, no waves. Ships cannot sail through it. And giant sea kings live there in great numbers. No one dares to sail there.

But Pablo would not sail.

He would fly.

He smiled. The Calm Belt was a problem for sailors, but it was not a problem for a man who flies on a cloud. The giant sea kings would be far away from him, and the absence of wind was not a problem, for he himself was the weather.

Then he looked again at the map. He began to plan his route.

He would pass several small, unimportant islands.

But after these islands, he would reach a different region.

There was an island known for its size and trade, inhabited by hundreds of thousands of people.

Its na was Vertus Island.

Vertus was famous for one thing: a large Navy branch.

The Navy branch on Vertus was one of the largest in the South Blue. It housed hundreds of soldiers, dozens of warships, and powerful officers. It controlled the trade routes in that region, protected ships from pirates, and monitored everyone approaching the Calm Belt.

Pablo had decided that Vertus was the island where he would stop next.

He placed his finger on the map where Vertus was. Then he moved it to the Calm Belt, then to the Grand Line.

The journey from Sorbit to Vertus was long. About eleven days of sailing, but he was flying, he didn't know how long he would need. He would stop for rest, eating, drinking, and sleeping, unlike ships that never stop.

But ti was not a problem.

He put the map in the bag. He tightened the bag's straps on his back. He stood on the cloud.

He looked ahead. Towards the dark horizon where the sun would soon rise.

"Vertus," he said in a low voice. "I will see you soon."

Then he signaled. The cloud moved with him. It set off towards the southeast, towards the beginning of his real adventure.

He did not look back.

He knew the family would manage itself.

And he knew he would return.

But now, it was ti to go.

The sun rose behind him, painting the sky with colors of gold and orange. Pablo was heading towards the light, towards the new challenge, towards the power he would obtain.

The cloud moved with him a little faster. The wind howled around him, but it did not harm him. He controlled it. He was its master.

He disappeared into the distant horizon.

His journey had begun.